High school students, how about rowing with the Lake Sunapee Rowing Club? The Rowing Club will hold an “interest meeting” on Saturday, March 9, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m, at Pete’s Shed, River Road, Sunapee Harbor.

“High school students aged 14 and up are invited to join our competitive rowing team,” says LSRC coach Brenda Balenger. “Beginners are welcome. No experience necessary.”

In Sunapee, the recreation department will have 2,000 eggs filled with toys, candy and extra special treats for this year’s Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 7. It will be held at Tilton Park, Route 103B, starting promptly at 11 a.m., and is open to community children 8 years old and younger. Bring your own basket!

The rec department recommends arriving early, parking is limited. Additional parking can be found along Maple and Beech streets. Bad weather will move activities to the Sherburne gym on Route 11. For more information, contact Recreation Director Scott Blewitt at recreation@town.sunapee.nh.us.

The local hiking group, the Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge (SRK) Greenway Coalition, is holding winter hikes that are open to the public free of charge. For the 2012 hike schedule go to: www.srkg.com.

Three hikes of moderate difficulty are scheduled for February. On Saturday, February 4, the group will snowshow in the Wilmot Patterson Road area. Hikers will explore Tucker Mountain in East Andover on February 11. And on February 18, the outing will follow a trail from Route 4A to Wilmot Center over Bog Mountain.

“Hike leaders will offer full details for each event, including starting place and time and equipment needs,” according the SRK website. “Please contact the hike leader in advance to get the details” and to determine if the hike is suitable for your conditioning and capabilities.

The Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway Coalition is again leading a series of winter hikes in the Lake Sunapee region. The hikes are open to the public free of charge, and offer a variety of terrain and conditions. The hike schedule (listed below) includes snowshoe and cross-country ski events and a moonlight snowshoe outing over a forgiving three-mile course.

A snowshoe tour through Webb Woods in Sunapee on January 15 will kick off the 2011 hike schedule.

Hikes range from easy to difficult.

Hike leaders will offer full details for each event, including starting place and time and equipment needs. There is no cost to participants, except for personal food, equipment, and transportation to the hike site. Continue reading →

Sunapee’s outdoor skating rink located behind the Ben Mere gazebo in the harbor village is open for the season and now has a warming hut thanks to John Gosselin’s Sunapee High wood working class of 2010. Rec department Director Scott Blewitt says the warming hut is un-supervised, but has lights inside and out and heat–both on a timer.

Managed by the town rec department, the rink has a new liner this year courtesy of the Sunapee Police Department and Santa Claus, according to Blewitt. The liner will help in maintaining ice quality. The Sunapee Ice-Master is Greg Kelley, who also received “special thanks” from Blewitt.

Here are the rules of the rink:

Please keep the hut and ice clean and safe.

Respect the signs. An important note, if you see caution tape, that means the rink is closed because of thin ice and to protect the new liner. (Under the ice is a $2,000 liner that can be cut if skaters use the rink when the ice is too thin.)

There are ice skates available for free use, and the rec departments welcomes donations of more skates.

Remember when….the rope tows operated in “downtown” Sunapee? The photo was taken by Lou Thompson, and “it looks like Charlie Boyce bringing a young girl up the hill,” said Ron Garceau, publisher of SooNipi Magazine.

And to share your memories of skiing downtown Sunapee or learning to ski on a rope tow or at one of New England’s lost ski areas, just leave a comment.

The photo–Ski Tow Hill looking across toward High and Elm streets–comes to us courtesy of Ron Garceau, publisher of SooNipi Magazine, which chronicles the people, businesses, recreation, lifestyles and history of the area.

OPINION

By Catherine Bushueff

New Hampshire is largely defined by its green and open spaces, its vital forest lands and its recreational landscape…including the spectacular White Mountain National Forest and our state parks, beaches and forests. A key partner in protecting and providing for these areas is the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

The Keene Sentinel observed in its Dec. 7th editorial: “The Land and Water Conservation Fund helps keep the nation green.”

The conservation fund preserves historic battlefields and helps maintain forest economies It creates jobs restoring parks that have been allowed to fall into disrepair. And it adds threatened lands to conservation areas like the Sylvia Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge that protects the New Hampshire headwaters of the Connecticut River and the river’s watershed.

LWCF has been instrumental in preserving the nation’s land, water, wildlife and recreation heritage, which in turn strengthen local economies and communities and enhance the quality of life. Continue reading →